Glitter, the Herpes of Craft Supplies

News flash: it's winter!  Not only is it winter, it's freaking frigid out there!  I am not a fan of winter.  If I didn't have so much family in central Pennsylvania, I would move south.  Unfortunately, that's not an option right now, so I have to make due.  Making due for myself is rather easy.  If it were just me, I would hunker down with a hot cup of tea and a good book and send myself into a semi-hibernation until May.  But it's not just me.  I have these two rug rats in my care who, if left to their own devices, can wreak quite a bit of havoc on pretty much anything that falls in their path.  Sub-zero temps, sunset before 6, no cable, and two boys with cabin fever don't always make for a peaceful home environment.  What's a mom to do?  At one point, I saw Jake sitting in a chair in the living room staring blankly into space this evening.  When I asked him what he was doing, and his response was, "Oh, just trying not to have a nervous breakdown," I knew I had to do something!  

I'm not super creative.  In fact, I'm pretty run-of-the-mill boring myself, so I tend to fall back on the same tricks over and over.  If it ain't broke, then don't fix it!  The boys are pretty easily satisfied with what Andrew calls "spariments."  They like to mix stuff together and see what happens.  I can do that.  I don't like the mess, but I can corral them fairly well, and I can also turn a "spariment" into a semi-science lesson, so that's what we tend to do.  That's certainly what we did tonight.  

We started with a rather odd combination that I found on Pinterest.  We mixed a bunch of ice cubes with baby oil.  Guess what it made?  Yep, you got it ~ slippery ice cubes!

If nothing else, it will help with winter dry skin, right? 

Then we sprinkled gold glitter all over the oiled ice.  Actually, it was pretty cool.  They looked like little gold nuggets!  

"Hey, Mom.  My new nickname will be Goldfinger!"

"Jake, this is like treasure!"  

See, it all really is a matter of perspective.  The pot o' gold was right here in my kitchen all along!  

"I'm finally rich, Mom.  Now you can get your skinny ass!" 

Next, we filled a pan with milk and put drops of food coloring in the corners.  You know you have a nerdy son when he correctly guesses that adding a drop of dish soap will cause the milk to repel the soap and dispel the food coloring like sunbursts in the milk.  What kind of 9 year old talks like that?  

"Jake, look at that!  Isn't it cool?"

"Yes, Andrew.  The colors are dissipating in the milk and merging together."  

Here's what Andrew and I (the lesser of the household species tonight) called, rainbow milk.  

Of course, even a nerd can't resist the desire to fling colored milk onto his brother when given the chance.  

Mixing it all together to make camo-green.  Fun times.  Fun times.  

Next, we played with shaving cream.  Why not?  It's cheap and fun.  

Throw some food coloring into the shaving cream and you get some pretty awesome (and semi-permanently stained) hands.  

And lastly, the old stand-by, baking soda and vinegar explosions.  

Guess how long we were occupied with these awesome experiments?  

Probably about 45 minutes.  Eeee.... how much longer til spring?  

Let me just end with this thought ~ I hate glitter.  It migrates to everything it touches.  Heck, it migrates to things it doesn't touch!  Try as I might to contain the brilliance, I know I will be finding gold in crevices for weeks.  Is it bad to dump baby oil full of gold glitter down the drain?  Don't tell my husband if it is! One time, shortly after I graduated college, when I was living in an apartment with some friends in downtown Pittsburgh, I poured candle wax down the kitchen sink.  I don't know why I did it.  It was a white candle, and when white wax melts, it's clear like water.  I was really using my  $100K Allegheny College education when I didn't think ahead enough to realize that once the wax cooled, it would solidify into what the plumber said was "something he had never before encountered in a clogged drain."  I'm suddenly rethinking that decision to dump the shimmery baby oil down the sink.  Right now, I'm praying I don't find a mini razzle-dazzle votive in the kitchen trap in the morning!

Hmmm....fingers crossed!